RELATED: TALKS COLLAPSE OVER BAILOUT DEAL

Even as the nation's $700 billion, taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout was still being hashed out, the former mayor announced Thursday his high-powered law firm has set up a task force.

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Its mission: to help corporate clients get a piece of the action - or keep the federal wolves from the door.

"Our team of former government officials and experienced attorneys in the fields of legislation, enforcement and finance are equipped to guide institutions in this quickly evolving and complex environment," Giuliani noted in a press release from his law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani.

Giuliani is not the only one poised to profit from opportunities created by the mega-meltdown, but he is the most politically famous.

Giuliani is a prime surrogate for Republican McCain, who has called the economic meltdown "the greatest crisis since the end of World War II" and has assailed Wall Street for "unbridled greed."

Democrats argued that Giuliani's latest business pitch reflected poorly on the Arizona senator, a longtime friend who chose the former mayor to give the keynote speech at the GOP convention.

"Bracewell & Giuliani's crass opportunism raises serious questions about whether John McCain is comfortable with one of his most visible campaign surrogates trying to cash in on what Alan Greenspan called a once-in-a-century economic crisis," Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera told the Daily News.

McCain campaign officials declined to comment.

The Republican National Committee accused Democrats of hypocrisy, noting that Team Obama sent out a fund-raising letter last week that attempted to exploit the current financial mess.

"The hypocritical and ridiculous attacks launched by Democrats demonstrate a lack of seriousness that should concern the American people," RNC spokesman Danny Diaz said.

"Sen. McCain is focused on finding a solution to our economic challenge, while Barack Obama is in debate camp and his minions launch insults."

Members of Giuliani's task force will include a number of Bracewell & Giuliani employees with deep connections to Washington in general and the Bush White House in particular.

The elder Mukasey is one of Giuliani's closest friends and, as a federal judge, swore in Giuliani at both his mayoral inaugurations.

Another task force member will be Robert Clarke, a one-time director of the Resolution Trust Corp. - the government-owned outfit set up in the wake the last major government bailout, the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, to sell off assets.

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Bracewell & Giuliani spokeswoman Melanie Hillis declined to say how much the firm would be charging.

Top-shelf firms like Bracewell & Giuliani routinely charge corporate clients fees topping $800 an hour for every senior lawyer's time - or a commission based on the value of transactions that could reach billions of dollars.